The prevalent trend in chemistry instruction relies on what has been described as the classroom game. In this model, students take a passive role and the instructor does all the explaining (thinking), and learning is trivialized to knowing the correct answers (memorizing) and being able to produce them when prompted (regurgitating). The generation of explanations is central to scientific and technological development. In the process of figuring out explanations, the generation of inferences relies on the application of skills associated with scientific behaviors (e.g., analytical reasoning and critical thinking). The process of explanation generation causes a deeper analysis and revision of the scientific models, thus impacting the conceptual understanding of such models. Although the process of generating authentic explanations is closer to the experience of doing science, this process is seldom replicated in science instruction. Self-explaining refers to the generation of inferences about causal connections between objects and events. In science, this may be summarized as making sense of how and why actual or hypothetical phenomena take place. Research findings in educational psychology show that implementing activities that elicit self-explaining improves learning in general and specifically enhances authentic learning in the sciences. Research also suggests that self-explaining influences many aspects of cognition, including acquisition of problem-solving skills and conceptual understanding. Although the evidence that links self-explaining and learning is substantial, most of the research has been conducted in experimental settings. The purpose of this work was to advance knowledge in this area by investigating the effect of different self-explaining tasks on self-explaining behavior and the effect of engaging in different levels of self-explaining on learning chemistry concepts. Unlike most of the research in the field, this work did not focus on advancing procedural knowledge through self-explanation of examples or conceptual understanding through self-explanation of textual information and concepts. Instead, it focused on an experience closer to doing science by presenting a familiar phenomenon to the participants and a fact that would potentially induce cognitive imbalance to then prompt them to self-explain. This work used a multi-condition, mixed-method approach to categorize students' self-explaining behaviors in response to learning tasks and link it to the performance in a post-learning task. Students were randomly assigned to conditions that included the following: studying an experts' explanation, explaining correct and incorrect answers, explaining agreement with another's answer, and explaining one's own answer for others to use. Data were gathered in the classroom ecology of a university, large-enrollment general chemistry course. Content and construct validity evidence support the functionality of the research instruments for the assessment of conceptual understanding of entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics. An in-depth analysis of the post-learning task showed that the data collected from the instrument is reliable, consistent and reproducible. Findings supported an association between the self-explaining tasks and students' self-explaining behaviors. Results showed distinct categorical self-explaining behaviors in students' written responses. These self-explaining behaviors were associated with the self-explaining task given to the students. Thoughtful design of learning tasks can effectively elicit engagement in sophisticated self-explaining in natural, large-enrollment college chemistry classroom environments. Comparison analyses of performance in the post-learning task suggested that in the context of large-enrollment college chemistry classroom environments, self-explaining activities improved students' conceptual understanding in chemistry. Overall, the work showed that students can self-explain chemical phenomena and apply the underlying chemistry concepts in the resolution of novel problems without direct intervention of an instructor. This work supports the incorporation of self-explaining activities in the repertoire of teaching practices of both experienced and novice instructors for general chemistry courses.

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Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Curriculum and Instruction / Socorro Herrera / The primary purpose of this study was to explore ways in which teachers can increase their second language (L2) learners’ reading comprehension through constructing situation models. The author incorporated theoretical frameworks, including the situation model theory (Kintsch, 1998/2007), the event index model (Zwaan & Radvansky, 1998), and the linguistic threshold hypothesis (Clark, 1980; Aldersen, 1984; Carrell, 1991). As an educational intervention, a set of adjunct questions were asked during reading to elicit readers’ explanations of causality and intentionality to promote coherent comprehension. A total of 117 L2 readers’ ability to make appropriate inferences based on situation models was assessed through both quantitative (experimental-control design) and qualitative (think-aloud) methods. This experimental study examined the effect of explaining to target situation models, while also looking at the relationship between the readers’ inferential ability and their L2 proficiency. In addition to the main effects of the intervention and L2 proficiency, the interaction between the intervention and L2 proficiency were discussed as results of the quantitative analysis. Also discussed was the nature of the L2 readers’ responses to adjunct questions, which were designed to measure the quality of their explanations based on the underlying situations in the text that they were reading. This study extended existing research on situation model-level comprehension to L2 literacy, which has not previously been well studied. This made the study theoretically interesting as well as highly applicable to L2 reading instruction. The main findings of this study were: (1) there was a strong effect of question types (inferential vs. non-inferential questions) with greater accuracy overall for non-inferential questions, (2) there was a suggestive trend of question type interacting with L2 proficiency, such that higher proficiency participants showed little difference between question types, (3) there was no statistically significant main effect of the adjunct question manipulation on accuracy, and (4) there was a trend suggesting an interaction between experimental condition and L2 proficiency, with higher proficiency participants showing a somewhat larger effect of the adjunct question manipulation. Additionally, both quantitative and qualitative data trended in the direction consistent with the linguistic threshold hypothesis.

This paper examines the power and limitations of historical analysis in regards to explaining the Holocaust and in particular the widespread consent to the Nazi program. One of the primary limitations that emerges is an inability of historians to fully engage other social sciences to offer a more comprehensive explanation as to why so many Germans engaged in what we would consider an “evil” enterprise. In that regard, I offer the work of Ernest Becker, a social anthropologist, whose work provides a framework for understanding history as a succession of attempts by man to create societies that generate meaning through various heroic quests that defy man's finite existence, yet often result in carnage. Combining Becker's theoretical framework with the rich historical evidence specific to the Holocaust provides a much richer understanding of both Becker's work and why the Holocaust happened.

Initial teacher education is an area of weakness within the Chilean education system. Yet it is highlighted as a crucial aspect of educational success. Success in educational improvement depends mainly on the teachers (because they enact a reform by putting it into practice), and teacher thinking is likely to influence teacher decision-making. How teacher conceptions and practice change, and how to facilitate this change, was the focus of this study. It explored to what extent peer assessment could facilitate change in pre-service science teachers’ conceptions and practices regarding conceptual explanations in science teaching.In a quasi-experimental design, a ten-session peer assessment intervention was carried out with thirty seven pre-service science teachers in three Chilean universities, each with an experimental and control group. The intervention sought to develop changes in teachers’ conceptions about the quality of explanations and in their skill of explaining scientific concepts. Teachers' thoughts were obtained through a peer assessment questionnaire, feedback sessions, focus groups and interviews. The quality of their explanations was measured at pre, post and follow-up in their eventual first job via video-recorded microteaching episodes using observational analysis. Inter-rater reliability was calculated on 5% of all qualitative data and all the videos were rated by two researchers in a blind process. Qualitative analysis indicated how teachers transformed their conceptions about the quality of explanations from general pedagogical knowledge into pedagogical content knowledge. A quantitative instrument was created to evaluate student teachers’ explanations in practice. Its reliability enables the assessment the skill of explaining based on ten elements (Cronbach’s alpha=.77). Results showed pre-service teachers significantly improved their explanations of scientific concepts in some practical aspects, although not all of them were transferred into real teaching contexts. The changes in student teachers’ conceptions and practice were analysed to indicate how the process occurred, to what extent peer assessment had a role on it, and which elements facilitated or made difficult the transference of the skill of explaining into real teaching. These results indicated that peer assessment can play a noteworthy role in teacher education to develop skills. There are implications for policy and practice in this study, not only for teacher education but also for in-service teacher professional development, not only for Chile but also for other countries.

<p>Consumers frequently share stories about consumption experiences with others through word of mouth (WOM). Past research has focused on how hearing WOM influences the listener; I examine how sharing WOM influences the speaker. My proposed model outlines variables that determine storytelling language, predicts how specific language influences speakers' evaluations of experiences, and identifies the process through which language influences speakers. I test this model in five experimental studies and in a field study using Amazon.com data. I find that stories containing relatively more explaining language influence speakers through a process of sense-making. Sense-making helps consumers understand and recover from experiences by allowing them to figure out why experiences occurred and why they liked or disliked them. Making sense of experiences through explaining language has several consequences for consumers. Explaining language can cause paradoxical effects of WOM in terms of consumers' evaluations of experiences and their intentions to repeat and recommend experiences. Explaining positive experiences can decrease speakers' evaluations of experiences, making experiences less positive and decreasing consumers' willingness to repeat and recommend these experiences. Conversely, explaining negative experiences can increase speakers' evaluations of experiences, making experiences less negative and increasing consumers' willingness to repeat and recommend these experiences. In addition, making sense of and explaining experiences decreases consumers' intentions to spread future word of mouth about their experiences.</p> / Dissertation

When interviewing school students for what constitutes a good mathematics teacher, the first characteristic usually listed is the ability to explain well. Besides well-founded content knowledge most important for classroom episodes of teacher explanations is knowledge about how to present mathematical concepts in a comprehensible way to students. This encompasses competencies in the area of verbal communication as well as the conscious use of means for illustrating and visualising mathematical ideas. We report about an analysis of explanatory processes in math lessons and about an analysis of prospective teachers\' explanatory competencies. As a result we identify improvements in teacher education at university.

abstract: Multimodal presentations have been found to facilitate learning, however, may be a disadvantage for low spatial ability students if they require spatial visualization. This disadvantage stems from their limited capacity to spatially visualize and retain information from both text and diagrams for integration. Similarly, working memory capacity (WMC) likely plays a key role in a learner's ability to retain information presented to them via both modalities. The present study investigated whether or not the act of self-explaining helps resolve deficits in learning caused by individual differences in spatial ability, working memory capacity, and prior knowledge when learning with text, or text and diagrams. No interactions were found, but prior knowledge consistently predicted performance on like posttests. The author presents methodological and theoretical explanations as to the null results of the present study. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Applied Psychology 2014

In a changing society new training goals and tasks are suggesting for school. In this context specific interest of linguistic and literary training arises. While implementing training goals and tasks, it is recommended to choose active training methods and ways which motivate students’ activity, learning motivation and collaboration. The methods should prompt the students to create, assess, find, and explain things individually. One of the means in the literature lessons are dramatic teaching. The training through art is as a tool, used for implementation to reach other goals. The problem in our work is which dramatic training ways should be used in the lesson while teaching to understand literary word better? The object of our work is literary text understanding abilities and dramatic teaching methods of 7th grade students of comprehensive school. Hypothesis of work seems likely that using of dramatic teaching methods in literature lessons of 7th grade students help to comprehend literary. The aim of our work is to determine the efficiency using dramatic teaching methods in literature lesson while developing better literary text understanding abilities. The literature analysis has proved that it is expedient to use dramatic training methods in literature lesson. It is essential to consider the age and abilities of the students as well as the aims of the lesson, the theme and content. The age of 7th grade students corresponds to the young teenager’s age. They become... [to full text]